(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-04 21:34

UME had violated the audience's "fair trade rights," while SARFT had infringed upon "society's public interest" by failing to implement a rating system that would allow adults to see the film, Dong said.

While most of the world is debating the explicit sex scenes, some critics have focused on the politically charged nature of the film.

Set in 1940s' Shanghai during the Japanese invasion, "Lust, Caution", based on a short story by Chinese novelist Eileen Chang, depicts a sexually charged relationship between an undercover female student activist and a Japanese-allied intelligence chief.

"The most striking part of the film is not sex, but politics," Yau Lop Poon, editor-in-chief of the Hong Kong-based Yazhou Zhoukan (Asian Weekly), wrote in the newspaper.

The film demonstrated "Chinese grief", depicting to a world audience a tragic period in history in which hundreds of millions of Chinese lived under the Japanese invasion, Yau wrote.

However, some critics and cultural experts lambasted the film in live debates organized by Beijing-based academic website "Utopia" for its negative political connotations, said Fan Jinggang, the website's manager.

"It is a political movie full of political metaphors ... it is an insult to virtuous Chinese women," said movie director Zhou Guojin in comments published on the website.

Zhu Dongli, a research fellow with an academy affiliated to China's Cultural Ministry, was quoted on the website as saying, "the film is an insult to the Chinese nation ... it is hard to imagine the Israelis making a similar film".

In an open letter posted online, seven Beijing-based university students labeled the film an "obscene poison", accusing it of "degrading Chinese women martyears into prostitutes and worshipping pro-Japanese traitors".

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